


The Journal in the Forest

by justalittlelemony



Series: A Series of Unfortunate Works [4]
Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV), A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket, Gravity Falls
Genre: Episode: s01e01 Tourist Trapped, Gen, Gravity Falls AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sibling Bonding, just this once, olaf is not the worst, unfortunate falls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justalittlelemony/pseuds/justalittlelemony
Summary: After their parents perish in a terrible fire, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with a distant relative in Gravity Falls, Oregon.(An ASOUE Gravity Falls AU)
Relationships: Klaus Baudelaire & Sunny Baudelaire & Violet Baudelaire, Klaus Baudelaire & Violet Baudelaire
Series: A Series of Unfortunate Works [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794256
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	The Journal in the Forest

**Author's Note:**

> BEFORE WE BEGIN  
> Count Olaf is not evil in this particular fic because it is an AU and I want him to fill in the role of a character in this AU. I do not think that Count Olaf is a good person in the original series, but for the purposes of this fic, he is at least a decent one.

Klaus was sure that this day couldn't get any worse.

_The fire_ , his mind supplied unhelpfully.

Okay, so the original statement was an exaggeration.

Truthfully, the situation wasn't that bad. He wasn't separated from his sisters. That actually would be awful.

The place they were now to live in wasn't horrible either. Count Olaf, as he insisted on being called, was weird, but did willingly take Klaus and his sisters in. He wasn't crazy about living or working in Olaf's tourist trap, the Mystery Shack, in this odd town called Gravity Falls, but it could be worse. He shouldn't complain.

He wanted to, though.

"Klaus." His older sister, Violet's, voice brought him out of his thoughts. "Which bed do you want?"

The room (or attic, as Klaus remembered Count Olaf calling it) was equipped with two beds and a crib. A closet door stood at the end of the bed on the left, a shelf opposite it. The crib, which Violet had already placed Sunny in, was pushed between the shelf and the wall. In between the two beds was a window shaped like an eye, a symbol that appeared throughout the tourist trap part of the shack.

Klaus threw his small bag on the bed to the left. "I'll take this one."

Violet nodded, pacing her bag on her bed and beginning to unpack. Violet, Klaus mused, had taken the aftermath of the fire much better than he had. She had spent most of the past week looking after him and Sunny, who was currently chewing on some board game pieces. He figured this was her way of coping. Klaus felt moody and emotional, Violet focused on anyone's emotions but her own.

"You know," Violet started, walking over to the closet to put her clothes away, "I saw a library on the way here. Maybe we can go later."

"Yeah," Klaus said, trying his best to sound somewhat enthusiastic. It didn't work.

She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by a shout from downstairs. "Baudelaires!"

Violet sighed and pulled Sunny out of her crib. Klaus followed his sisters out of the room and down the stairs.

Count Olaf was waiting for the children in the gift shop, dressed as his "Count Mystery" character, with his suit and fez. He held a stack of papers in his hands. "There you are. I need you to take these posters," he said, dropping the large stack into Klaus's arms. Klaus buckled under the weight. "And hang 'em up all throughout the forest."

Violet looked down at the posters in Klaus's arms, which were covered with that odd eye, which seemed to be the logo of the Mystery Shack. "Okay, I'll just bring Sunny upstairs, then Klaus and I'll-"

Olaf waved his hands dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just don't take too long in the woods. I don't want to deal with one of you getting kidnapped or something." The door of the gift shop opened, letting in a wave of tourists, which Olaf left to greet.

"Up?" Sunny asked, tugging on Violet's hair.

"Sorry, Sunny. I can't put up posters and hold you." Violet turned to her brother. "Do you think you could find some tape while I bring Sunny upstairs?"

Klaus nodded and Violet began up the stairs. 

Three minutes later, Violet met her brother, who had managed to find a couple of half-used rolls of masking tape, on the porch. She picked up one of the rolls. "Is this gonna be enough?"

Klaus shrugged. "I dunno. I wasn't about to ask Olaf."

"That's fair." She placed the roll onto the posters, grabbing half from the stack. "Why don't you take the west side, while I take the east side? That way we'll be done sooner."

"Yeah, sounds good," Klaus replied, picking up his share of the posters. 

* * *

Klaus was about three quarters through his stack of papers when he found something.

He had gotten into a decent groove of taping posters to trees, but he was starting to get tired of it. Klaus wasn't like Violet and couldn't just tie his hair back and daydream until the end of time. Klaus liked sitting in a corner and focusing on one thing, his book. Unfortunately, this meant that he would get bored performing repetitive and meaningless tasks.

Taping posters to trees, for example.

Klaus was so frustrated about being bored that he almost didn't notice the odd opening in the tree he was about to tape. It was small but large enough to be noticed. Upon closer examination, the opening was just a part of an outline, making a box on that side of the tree. Klaus's fingers touched the area around the opening and instead of feeling wood, felt rusted metal. He traced the outline with his finger, realizing what it was. His hands gripped the edge of the outline, opening a secret hatch in the tree.

A storm of dust exited as the door opened, causing him to cough and his glasses to fog up. He stepped back for a moment, taking his glasses off to clean them and coughing, before getting a closer look at the contents of the tree.

It was a book, its red cover layered with dust and torn all over. Written on the cover were two things: a large, black number three, and the eye plastered on the very posters Klaus had been taping in the forest. He pulled the book out of the hatch, releasing more dust, but much less than before. He opened the book, flipping to the page where the bookmark was placed.

_Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before They find it. Remember- In Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust._

Needless to say, Klaus was no longer bored.

* * *

Klaus ended up reaching the shack a full forty-five minutes before Violet did, owed mostly to the fact that after uncovering the journal, he shoved the rest of the posters into a hollow log. He ran back to the shack, hiding the book in his jacket until he made it to the attic. Sunny had fallen asleep, as many infants do, which allowed him to sit on his bed and start reading the journal before Violet came back.

The journal told the story of the author, a man who was investigating supernatural activity in Gravity Falls, along with his assistant, Q. Something... happened to the author. In the first pages, he seemed excited about his discoveries. But as the journal went on, the focus was less on the oddities of the town and more on a mysterious schism. The paranoia was most explicitly spelled out on the first page that Klaus had read, one of the final written pages of the book.

_TRUST NO ONE._

A million questions flew through Klaus's mind. _Are these creatures real? Who is Q? What was the schism? Who was watching the author? Why did the author hide the journal?_

_Who is the author?_

Klaus heard the creak of the stairs to the attic and slammed the journal shut, the author's words running through his mind. He shoved the journal under the bed just as Violet opened the door. She leaned over the crib to see her sleeping sister, her hair still tied with her ribbon.

"Hey," Klaus said.

Violet turned to her brother. "Oh, hey. When did you finish?"

"Not long ago." He pushed the journal farther under the bed with his foot.

His sister sat down on her own bed across from him, pulling her ribbon out of her hair. "So, I thought we could go to the library once Sunny wakes up."

_Shit. The library._ This was probably the only time in Klaus's life where he didn't want to go to the library. There was absolutely no way he could convince Violet that he didn't want to go.

_Unless..._

"Um, actually, I was thinking. Why don't we go to the library?" He fought off the urge to play with his sleeves. "I mean, it'll be getting dark soon, and I don't think Olaf will be willing to give us a ride." He looked up at his sister, who seemed skeptical. _Might as well give it a go._ "Besides, uh, you know the other employee in the shack?"

"The hook-handed man?" Violet asked, confused.

"Yeah. I heard him say that the golf cart-thing wasn't working. I thought we could go to the library tomorrow and you could work on the cart today."

It was Violet's turn to look down. "Are you sure?"

Klaus shrugged. "Yeah. I mean, the library will be there tomorrow."

"So will the cart." Both siblings stared at each other, neither willing to concede.

Finally, Klaus spoke. "Vi, you've been looking out for Sunny and me ever since the fire." She stiffened. "At least do this for yourself."

After a moment, she nodded. "Okay." She stood up and tied her hair back as she walked, but stopped at the door. "You'll keep an eye on Sunny?"

Her brother nodded. Violet glanced at her baby sister in hesitation, but finally left the room, closing the door behind her. 

Klaus couldn't believe it had worked. Violet could usually see right through him.

He felt guilty for not telling Violet about the journal. She was his sister. Surely the author's warning didn't apply to her.

Regardless, he was going to tell her. Just not yet.

He quickly returned to the journal, engrossed completely in its information. So engrossed that he almost didn't hear the tapping of small feet in the attic.

At the noise, he froze. Klaus wasn't even sure he had heard anything. But he heard it again. Something was in the attic.

He sat up and looked over to the far side of the room. There, stacked on top of each other to form a ladder of sorts into Sunny's crib, were gnomes. Small, bearded, hat-wearing garden gnomes.

Not only were there gnomes in Sunny's crib, but they were carrying her out of it.

Klaus yelped at the sight, dropping the journal onto his bed. Sunny had previously been asleep, but at the sound of her brother, she woke up. The gnomes' attention shifted from Klaus to Sunny as the infant began fussing and crying. Klaus, meanwhile, had backed into the corner of his bed, not quite believing the scene in front of him. _There are gnomes in the attic. Gnomes are kidnapping my baby sister._

"Shut that baby up!" One of the gnomes cried, "And get that kid!" Most of the gnomes focused on Sunny, now working on leaving the room, but a small group began towards Klaus.

Just then, Violet's voice came from outside of the room. "Klaus is everything-" She appeared in the doorway and screamed. The gnomes carrying Sunny were now running out of the room as fast as they could. The other gnomes, realizing that the others had already left, ran to join them. Klaus grabbed the journal from the bed and ran after them, Violet now with him. The two ran outside the shack, only to see that the gnomes were already far ahead, with their baby sister captive.

"How will we catch up with them?" Klaus asked, frustrated. A realization dawned upon both Baudelaires.

"The cart." The two raced to the other side of the shack, where Violet had been working on the golf cart.

"Is it working?" Klaus asked.

"Mostly," Violet replied, tightening her ribbon then propping the hood up. "Get the key from Olaf."

Klaus sprinted into the shack and almost ran into Olaf's employee, the hook-handed man.

"Whoa there," the man said, holding up his hooks, "Don't want to get hurt. Is everything alright?"

_No, not really. You see, my sister is being kidnapped by evil garden gnomes._

"Um, yeah," Klaus said, sidestepping the question, "Where's Olaf?"

"Oh, he went into town. Needed something for a new attraction. What did you need from him?"

"Um, Violet fixed the, er, Mystery Cart." He calmed himself enough to get through the sentence. "So, we needed the key to try it out."

The man reached into his pocket. "You mean this key?" He held out a key attached to an eye-shaped keychain. He dropped it into Klaus's hand. "Just don't tell the boss I gave you it, and don't drive too fast."

Klaus grinned. "Thanks." Then he was out the door, running back to the cart. Violet slammed the hood shut as Klaus ran up with the key. He threw her the key as she slid into the driver's seat. "Will it work?" he asked, sliding into the seat next to her.

She turned the key, bringing the engine to life. "Looks like it." She seatbelted in and pressed her foot down on the pedal, heading in the direction of the gnomes.

Violet glanced at her brother in the seat next to her. "Seatbelt," she reminded him. Klaus fumbled with the belt for a moment but clicked it into place. "So," Violet started, "You wanna tell me what the fuck's going on?"

"Gnomes," Klaus said. He reached into his jacket, where he had stashed the journal. He flipped through the pages until he reached what he was looking for.

_GNOMES_

_Creature #24_

_DANGER UNKNOWN_

_Little men of the Gravity Falls Forest_

"Where did you get that?" Violet asked, looking at him.

Klaus opened his mouth to reply, but instead said, "Violet, car!" She swerved out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. Violet was fourteen and had her driver's permit. Despite this, she had only driven once or twice before the fire, and always in parking lots. This was a change of speed, both literally and figuratively.

"I, I found it in the woods. Earlier today," he admitted.

"Does it say anything about how to defeat them?"

Klaus scanned the pages, looking for any type of relevant information until he found it.

_Weaknesses:_

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just a blank line and a question mark.

"N-no." His voice shook. "There's nothing here!"

"Check the back," Violet said suddenly, "Olaf isn't very organized. Maybe there's something back there we can use."

Klaus undid his seatbelt and turned to the back, kneeling on the seat. Violet was right. It was a mess. The most random junk was piled onto the backseat. He shuffled through it until he found it. A shovel. He sat back into his seat, holding up the shovel. "Will this work?"

Violet glanced back at her brother. "Uh, yeah, actually." She looked back to the front. "We're coming up on them." Sure enough, the cart was gaining on the upcoming gnomes. Violet pulled up next to the gnomes. Klaus held onto one of the poles of the cart, leaning out over the group. He hit a couple of gnomes off of Sunny with the shovel, then threw it back into the cart. He grabbed Sunny and sat back down into the cart.

Violet slammed on the brakes, the gnomes continuing to run. She turned the cart around, speeding away. "Sunny, are you okay?"

"Kay," Sunny babbled, gripping Klaus's jacket. He seatbelted back in, holding Sunny close to him.

A boom sounded in the distance. Then, another. Klaus turned to look behind them. A large figure was running towards the cart. A large figure made of gnomes.

"Uh, Violet?" Klaus turned to his sister. 

"I see it."

The gnome-monster was gaining on the small cart, its large legs traveling much more distance than the gnomes previously did. Gnomes would fall off the structure, then climb back on. It took a step, shaking the cart. Sunny let out a cry and held tighter to Klaus. "What do we do?"

Violet looked down at the floor of the cart. Her foot was pressed as far down as it could go. The shack came into view, the cart getting closer and closer with each passing second...

She looked into her rear-view mirror and was met with the sight of one of the monster's large hand about to strike the cart. "Look out!" She braked in an attempt to avoid the gnomes, but the hand still hit the cart, toppling it over. Luckily for the Baudelaires, their seatbelts kept them from falling out of the cart. The vehicle landed on the driver's side. Both Violet and Klaus unseatbelted and began crawling out of the wrecked cart, Sunny still in her brother's arms. After exiting the wreck, the children ran, the gnome-monster still in pursuit.

The Baudelaires ducked behind a wall. Klaus whispered, "Violet, what do we do?" The girl looked frantically around for something, anything to get rid of the gnomes. They were in the area where Violet had been working on the cart. Tools were scattered around the area, along with a couple of outdoor tools left out by Olaf. _A wrench, a mower, a leafblower..._

Violet whispered back to her brother, "I've got an idea." She began to move from behind the wall.

"Wait, Violet!" He grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?"

"Just trust me!" 

_Trust no one._

Klaus let go of his sister.

She ran towards the leafblower, grabbing it and turning to the gnome-monster. Some gnomes climbed down from the full monster to attack her. She turned the leafblower onto the "vacuum" setting, sucking one of the gnomes into the barrel. It began screaming, stopping the other gnomes in their steps. Klaus stood next to his sister, realizing her plan. Violet smiled at her brother. "On three?"

Klaus nodded. "On three."

"One." Klaus placed his hand on the switch of the leafblower.

"Two." Violet aimed at the monster.

"Three!" Sunny cried. Klaus switched the leafblower from "vacuum" to "blow." The gnome in the barrel was shot at the gnome-monster, destroying the monster and throwing gnomes into the air. The remaining gnomes ran away, leaving the Baudelaires alone, outside of the shack.

* * *

Somehow, the Baudelaires were able to escape to the attic with minimal questions from Olaf. He raised an eyebrow at the children's distressed appearances, and Klaus was sure that some sort of talk would come from the semi-destroyed Mystery Cart, but overall, there was a lack of a response.

All three children were all ready for bed when Klaus began writing in the journal. At first, he merely updated the page on gnomes, writing "leafblowers" under weaknesses. But as he flipped through the pages of the journal, he felt the need to record his own findings. He skipped a page after the author stopped and recounted the day's findings.

_This journal told me there was no one in Gravity Falls I could trust._

Klaus looked over at his sisters. Sunny was standing in her crib, her small hands gripping the handrail. She couldn't stand on her own yet, but she had figured out how to pull herself up. She bounced up and down a bit, giggling as she did so.

Violet, on the other hand, was sitting on her bed, her hair tied back with her ribbon. She had sketched out some leafblower-like devices to get rid of gnomes on some paper she had found in the closet.

_But when you battle a hundred gnomes side-by-side with someone, you realize that they've probably always got your back. Count Olaf told us there was nothing strange about this town. But who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked._

**Author's Note:**

> so, I hope you liked it!!
> 
> I will probably not upload on a schedule, but this fic should be easy to finish because it's all mostly mapped out for me.
> 
> that being said, I am going to change some stuff. I don't want to just write Gravity Falls but substituting Violet and Klaus for Mabel and Dipper, but I will use the series as the basis for the fic.
> 
> hope to be out with the next chapter soon!!


End file.
